Armin Van Buuren - Armin Only: Imagine

With his back-to-back crown in the DJ Mag Top 100 confirmed not too long ago, undisputed king of trance Armin van Buuren adds to his prolific discography with the release of his Armin Only: Imagine on DVD. Weighing in at two discs and almost three hours in length, there’s neither space nor necessity for overtures. Having witnessed the 9 near-perfect hours of Armin Only in Sydney this June, I opened the case, popped a beer and sat back ready to see what the Dutch leg of the tour had to offer.

Opening with a series of black and white shots of the empty venue and cutting dramatically to the packed out Jaarbeurs Utrecht arena, I cannot help but be stunned by the astronomical production levels. Just about 20,000 faces grin along to the extended intro to Fine Without You as Jenifer Rene sashays onstage looking smoking hot in a tiny red dress. As the opener fades out, the spine-tingling intro begins in earnest as a series of clips of Armin’s greatest moments are megamixed with spoken samples along the theme of ‘imagination.’ We fade into the piano intro of the title track before the curtain falls and brother Eller comes on stage busting some phenomenal riffs on his axe. Lasers and inflatables abound as Armin bounces goofily but charmingly behind one mixing desk to rule them all, basking in his element.

The tracks start off strongly with Leon Boiler’s Ocean Drive Boulevard whipping into a fantastic mash-up of Not The End and Who Will Find Me with it’s beautiful sentiment and rushing breakdown. The raver’s nemesis himself MC Stretch emerges from time to time as the crowd pray for a rogue pyrotechnic device to take him out once and for all, sadly to no avail. Chris Jones and DJ Shah pop up for the cheesy but loveable Going Wrong but the blatant retouching job leaves the performance tasting sterile and contrived. Cute air hostesses and a stunning acrobatic sequence on the Corde Lisse provide splendid eye candy set against the hundreds of thousands of LEDs and all-encompassing video screens as we head towards the halfway point.

I find myself pretty disappointed with the release so far – sure it looks fantastic, but the sound quality is not crash hot, and the tracklist is fairly beige. Thankfully, Jacqueline Govaert comes in and rocks Never Say Never with Rank 1’s Benno accompanying on keytar in the only quasi genuine recital on the disc. Eller returns for Zocalo, complete with glowing fluorescent guitar – now I’m watching. The bondage themed dancers signal the arrival of the business end of the show as SVD’s mix of Control Freak drops the massive breakdowns for understated driving tech. I have barely heard two minutes of World is Watching when the incredible Shivers takes me back to 2005. The Armin megamix races forward as the architect stands on the table showered in golden sparks. My mind begins to wander. before a suspended angel appears and the lyrical Burned With Desire elicits further adoration and growing pupils. White tickertape rains down from everywhere as ancient epic Communication Part 3 hands the baton to modern epic Big Sky, but Audrey Gallagher is cringe worthy, dancing awkwardly as her lips move in opposition with the words coming from the speakers. It’s like a train crash and I can’t help but rubberneck. Hold On To Me? sorry luv, no thanks.

As the electricity meter spins out of control, Courtney Love lookalike Carol Lee mimes along to the Cathy Burton vocal for Rain and the crowd pass giant balls (sic) from hand to hand. My favourite Armin moment comes during Trance Energy 2008 theme Thrill as Armin slaps the air in perfect time with the stabs. The walls shake before Rush Hour eases into the superb Cosmic Gate edit of Carte Blanche and the credits roll.

A fairly standard first half is thankfully salvaged by its cracking counterpart, which gets the pulse racing and the jaw muscles tensing. A bonus disc gives us a 20 minute insight into the tour from planning to execution and offers some interesting but brief insights into this likeable Dutchman’s routine and psyche, but aside from that, the extras are negligible. A pair of cheesy videos for Sound of Goodbye and Going Wrong pad it out marginally alongside a couple of deservedly deleted scenes, but there is little chance of Disc 2 getting much oxygen. All in all, the sights are breathtaking but this release is let down badly by the tracklist, as one can’t help but feel cheated by the 70% plus of royalty free Armada material on here. The vocal performances are either redubbed or brutally harmonized, and the synchronisation issues are often glaring. There is enough here to warrant a look, but if you own copies of 10 Years and 2008’s Imagine then musically speaking there is little here for you. So Armin, thanks for the memories, but you can keep this DVD cheers fella.

To rub it in a little, check out this link for the full tracklisting of the party, to see the stark contrast between Armin’s beautifully programmed set on the night and the cut and paste job that brought about the final cut for the DVD.

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trancejunkii says...

on November 6th, 2008

The whole 9 hours of the Holland Show is available for download somewhere. That was a phenomenal show. Watching the whole 9 hours much better than the edited released version :D

brenly says...

on November 6th, 2008

yeh i also downloaded the entire 9hrs of video. apparently armin allowed dutch tv AND radio to broadcast it live, hence the downloadable files that everyone jumped on a few days after it was aired. an absolute legend! can download it from tribalmixes.com

NEILOSH says...

on November 6th, 2008

"A fairly standard first half is thankfully salvaged by its cracking counterpart, which gets the pulse racing and the jaw muscles tensing." - LOL

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